Little Falls transcript., 1887-06-03
BILL NYE's BLASTED PASS.

BILL NYE'S BLASTED PASS.
! n The War Between the Pres. and the Railways
/ arrived here just q little
ahead OF the biting blasts OF the L. G
B., writes Bill Nye from Hudson, Wis.
to the New York World. By the /. C
B.. [ mean to imply the Interstate
commission bill. ID.
noticed while en- route that tht
new law had stimulated travel to 6
wonderful degree. On my way from
the South, where l was during the
winter, I noticed that the sluggish
arteries o. trade had already begur
to palpitate, and crowds OF people
filled the cars on every train.
Isaid to myself Congress has atlast
solved this great question: OF financial
stringency and broken the great dam
that held capital captive. On the
Piedmont Air Line people crushed each
other together in a mad attempt tc
travel. On the Richmond and Dan.
vile and East Tennessee, Virginia and
Georgia, as we'll as the Louisville and
Nashville, humanity crowded day
coaches and sleepers till the walls
cracked. At Cincinnati I could not
get a sleeping car at all, and I had to
telegraph twenty-four hours ahead to
get to Chicago. Everywhere, as far as
the eye could reach, there seemed to
be wild and restless desire to get
somewhere else. Several companies
have had to put on extra coaches to
carry the eager tourists.
I arrived here just in time to witness
the last moments of Northwestern
pass as it's spirit tookits flight. Had ]
postponed my journey for a. asingle day
| would have been too late.
1t was still young. Life was before
it. Barely quarter of the span OF
its lite had been passed when it curled
up and expired. 1t was a cute little
thing with an olive complexion, and
large, nournful, upper case eyes.
A few weeks ago I noticed that it
did not look we'll. 1t did not COM
plain OF illness or pain, but I
thought I detected condition
on its back, and so I hurried
home in order to be here in case
it should expire. AS soon as the con-
ductor looked at it and felt it's pulse
he said that he could do nothing for
it. The Interstate commerce law is
one OF those things that will have to
be tried before we can pass upon it,
presume, though some claim that it
is going to be very difficult to pass
upon it even then. This thought oc-
cured to me just after the gate keeper
pushed me back yesterday and told
me to go and get my ticket.
then first realized what it was to
be rudely ground under the heel OF a.
cold corporation that is devoid of
soul, devoid ofnoble thoughts, devoid
Of refined Instincts, devoid of kind
impulses, devoid OF milk of human
kindness, devoid of bowels of compass
sion.
From force of habit walked up to
the gate with q joyous nod and the
old password, only to be coldly re-
pulsed by the hired bouncer OF this
heartless, soulless, impulseless, milk
less and bowelless corporation.
But the railroads will get the worst
of it, for I know that trave! on some
OF the lines has fallen Oft since April
/. I can see it already. I have fallen
of myself since the 1st OF the month,
and others will do the same.
That is not all. A friend of mine
who runs g. paper, and whose pass
got the hollow horn on Friday
last, says that his columns are
now open to those who wish
to complain Of the management of the
road. He states that the first hot
box will be duly chronicled, and that
he will no longer close his eyes to the
wrongs we have heretofore suffered at
the hands Of the unjust and ruthless
vampire that has been sapping the
very foundations OF our institutions
and smearing its long, dark trail with
the remnants OF our best mich COWS,
reluctantly paying for them the price
set at the tail of an unjust and ener-
waiting trial by a corrupt, venal and
driveling jury.
He says that the time 'has come for
the press to arise and assert ITSELF"
and when the train runs off the track
and kills lot of people who have led
exemplary lives, his paper will hereatt-
er tell why and how 1t was done.
Heretofore he has not had sufficient
help in the Office, but now he is going
to give all the particulars OF the first
smash-up that occurs on the road ii
the paper falls into the relentless
NAV of a Sher.ff's sale on the follow
ing week.